Category: 2008 Election

I didn’t watch, but Rightwingprof did, and liveblogged it.

I’m pretty ho-hum about Mike Huckabee surging forward in the GOP primary.  Marshall Manson talks about his feelings on Governor Huckabee, which echo a lot of my own.  Here’s what he says in the article about Fred Thompson:

Like many conservatives, I had high hopes for Senator Thompson. Unfortunately, his campaign just hasn’t taken off. That’s in spite of the fact that he has presented some of the best policy proposals of any candidate in the race. I confess that I haven’t heard the Senator in person. But the collapse in support for his candidacy in Iowa and New Hampshire suggest that he hasn’t been particularly effective in communicating his message, either in person or through media. I was also disappointed in Thompson’s late summer staff purge, where he eliminated many of the minds behind innovative campaign that he seemed to be developing last spring. Instead, he’s embraced a fairly traditional campaign, but given his late start, he needed to do more, and his campaign now looks to be in trouble. I would be glad if Thompson recovered and made himself a factor for the nomination, but I’m not especially hopeful.

I’m pretty much feeling the same way.  My understanding is that Fred is free falling in the polls, which is sorely disappointing.  Except for a few areas, Thompson is about as good a candidate as I could hope for from the Republicans.

With Fred fizzling, and the Democratic primary increasingly looking like a race between Obama and Hillary, my registration as an independent is looking like it will stay in place for yet another primary cycle.   I’m still waiting, Republicans and Democrats, for someone worth voting for.

I say Tam gets to moderate the next presidential debate.

Jim Geraghty thinks Ron Paul is a non-movement, and his votes aren’t going to translate into support for other GOP candidates.

 I think that if and when Ron Paul ceases his presidential bid, his supporters will go in a thousand different directions, including many saying “to hell with politics.” They’re not inclined towards compromise, and they’re not going to be harnessed by half-a-loaf or even eighty-percent-of-the-loaf candidates. In other words, Ron Paul’s support is non-transferrable.

Ron Paul has the most traction I’ve seen a libertarian minded candidate get, but I think the war has a lot to do with that.  I have given up on libertarians for the most part, even though I still lean pretty heavily in that direction.  My disdain of gun control grew out of a generally libertarian attitude, but I’ve given up on the other aspects of libertarianism, because I’d prefer to focus my efforts on just seeing a few bits of my libertarian ideals adopted by candidates who can win.  I think that’s the only real way to be successful in politics, because politicians represent the aspirations of the various interest groups they represent, and those interest groups won’t always agree with each other.  People complain about always having a “lesser of two evils” choice, but the political process almost guarantees it.

If Ron Paul’s candidacy represents a real and permanent movement within the GOP, I think it might be able to turn into something.  It surely would drive the party, and its candidates, to adopt some more libertarian ideas.  But I agree with Jim that’s not going to happen.  When Ron loses the nomination, his supporters will scatter, and so will all the political capital they have built.  Libertarians need to be interested in playing the dirty game of politics if they want to come out of the political wilderness, but among libertarians, I don’t see too many indications of that.

This article suggests Pennsylvania will yet again be a battleground state in 2008, because neither party can afford to ignore it.  The big problem Republicans are going to have with Pennsylvania in 2008 is that suburban Republican voters do not like George W. Bush’s brand of conservatism, and I have a feeling a lot of rural Republicans in our state aren’t too happy with him either.  Absent some big issue that will mobilize Republican voters, I don’t see Pennsylvania going red in 2008, but it could happen, and I agree that the possibility will keep the candidates fighting over our state.

… before he was against them.  Someone on Mitt’s staff must have dropped the ball.  People might start thinking Mitt once supported gay rights.

Mr. Romney’s standing among conservatives is being hurt by a letter he sent to the Log Cabin Club of Massachusetts saying that he would be a stronger advocate for gay rights than Senator Edward M. Kennedy, his opponent in a Senate race, in a position that stands in contrast to his current role as a champion of a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

“We must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern,” Mr. Romney wrote in a detailed plea for the support of the club, a gay Republican organization.

It’s not much of a secret I think Mitt is the least desirable Republican candidate, which is part of why I think he has a chance of winning the nomination.  I trust him less than I trust Rudy, and I don’t really trust Rudy.

I have to offer congratulations to Congressman Ron Paul for raising more money in a single day than any of the other Republican candidates.  I agree with Bitter that fund raising success won’t necessarily translate into electoral success, but it better at least signal to the Republican establishment that libertarian ideals, and a committed and passionate stand in favor of them can bring something to the table.

I am still a Fred Thompson supporter, but to be honest, I was expecting Fred to hit the ground running once he announced, and lately, it just kind of seems like he’s phoning it in.  I’m not sure Fred is going to make it, and given the choice between Ron Paul, Guiliani, Romney, or registering as a Democrat to vote for Richardson, Ron Paul is starting to look better and better.

To be honest, if there weren’t a war going on, it wouldn’t even be a question, but there is.  I elect a President with two major considerations; who they are going to put on the Supreme Court, and their foreign policy.  I think I dig Ron Paul on the former, but his views on the latter scare me.  But then again, this might end up just being a message to the Republican Party that I’m sick of their crap, and want something different.

Armed and Safe talks about why he’ll never vote for Rudy.  I have to say, it’s a compelling reason.  You know, if Fred doesn’t pull it off, even I might have to vote for Ron Paul.